10 Unusual Product Recalls That Will Shock You

Modern toys have become so overly sanitized that they often lack excitement. However, four decades ago, toy stores were a chaotic and adventurous place, filled with items like rifles, chemistry sets containing uranium, and blowguns, all coated in toxic lead paint. Adults weren’t spared either, as cars were poorly regulated and often unsafe. This changed in the early 1970s when new laws were introduced to protect consumers from hazardous products. The outcomes of these recalls were sometimes frightening, amusing, or just plain strange.

10. US Consumer Product Safety Commission Lapel Pins

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), established in 1972, is the federal agency responsible for identifying and removing dangerous products from the market. This was in response to the rising number of children injured by unsafe toys. By 1974, the CPSC had prohibited over 1,500 toys. That same year, they distributed approximately 80,000 lapel pins promoting toy safety. Ironically, these pins were recalled due to excessive lead content, sharp edges, and clips that posed a choking risk.

The incident appears to have left a lasting impact, as the CPSC has recalled numerous lapel pins in recent years due to high lead levels. This includes pins distributed by Nintendo of America in 2008 and Build-A-Bear Workshop in 2011. The CPSC itself has faced scrutiny, especially regarding officials accepting trips funded by the industries they regulate.

9. ‘Too Cool to Do Drugs’ Pencils

Preventing children from using drugs is a challenging endeavor. Research has shown that programs like D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), led by police officers in U.S. schools, are largely ineffective. Some initiatives have even been laughable, such as the pencils handed out in New York elementary schools by the Bureau for At-Risk Youth, which boldly stated, “Too Cool to Do Drugs.”

At first glance, the pencils appeared harmless, but they sparked an unexpected uproar. A 10-year-old boy, Kodi Mosier, observed that sharpening the pencils caused the word “Too” to vanish, leaving behind the phrase “Cool to Do Drugs,” and eventually just “Do Drugs.” Darlene Clair, a company spokesperson, expressed understandable dismay over the mistake. The pencils were quickly recalled and redesigned so that the word “Drugs” would be the first to disappear when sharpened.

8. BMW Voice Navigation System

In the U.S., most automated voices are female, as studies suggest people find female voices more pleasant, possibly due to the comforting effect of a mother’s voice from infancy. A prime example is Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, though it uses a male voice in France and the UK.

In the late 1990s, gender bias became an issue in Germany when male BMW 5 Series owners complained about the female voice in their navigation systems. They were uncomfortable receiving directions from a woman. Instead of dismissing these complaints, BMW customer service informed the drivers that the GPS system was developed by a male team. Despite this explanation, the automaker eventually replaced the female voice with a male one to appease the disgruntled customers.

7. Tiger Woods PGA Tour

In 1999, Tiger Woods was rising to fame, and the first edition of his video game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, was launched. This game series continued until 2013. However, Electronic Arts, the game’s developer, faced an unexpected issue when it was discovered that the game included an Easter egg—the pilot episode of South Park, titled “Jesus vs. Santa.”

The crude short film, created in 1995, depicts the show’s characters joining Jesus on a trip to the mall, where he engages in a violent clash with Santa. The chaotic fight results in several deaths, and the conflict is only resolved when figure skater Brian Boitano appears. The episode concludes with the boys deciding that Christmas is all about gifts and that being Jewish is better because Hanukkah offers eight nights of presents instead of just one.

The episode was cleverly hidden and could only be accessed via a PC on PlayStation discs. However, in December 1998, a boy who received the game as a Christmas gift uncovered it. After informing his mother, she lodged a complaint with Electronic Arts, leading to an expensive and awkward recall. Although the inclusion of the episode was unintentional, the employee responsible was dismissed.

6. Burger King Poke Ball

In November 1999, Burger King launched a promotion featuring Pokemon figurines inside kids' meals. These toys were enclosed in a plastic ball, known as a “poke ball,” which could be separated into two halves. Tragically, on December 11, a 13-month-old girl in Sonora, California, was discovered lifeless in her playpen after one half of the poke ball created a seal over her mouth and nose, leading to suffocation.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission urged Burger King to recall the toys, but the company initially declined. However, less than two weeks later, an 18-month-old girl in Kansas experienced a similar incident when her face became trapped in the poke ball. Thankfully, her father rescued her, prompting Burger King to finally agree to a recall.

Burger King released a statement advising, “Parents should immediately remove the balls from children under 3 years old. They should either discard the ball or return both halves to a Burger King restaurant in exchange for a free small order of french fries.” The parents of the deceased girl reached an out-of-court settlement with the company for an undisclosed amount. Despite the recall, a second fatality occurred in January 2000 when four-month-old Zachary Jones of Lawrenceville, Indiana, was found dead in his crib.

5. Easy-Bake Oven

Hasbro’s Easy-Bake Ovens have been around for more than five decades. Over the years, the product has undergone significant changes from its original design, which used a 100-watt light bulb to bake treats, partly due to some alarming incidents. Its problematic history persisted until 2007, when the toy faced two major recalls. In February, Hasbro warned customers about the risk of children getting their hands or fingers trapped in the oven’s opening, along with reports of five burn injuries. They provided a free retrofit kit to enhance safety. Just five months later, another series of injuries, including a five-year-old girl who required partial finger amputation, led to the recall of one million units.

Today, the Easy-Bake Oven no longer uses a light bulb and functions more like a conventional oven, complying with all safety standards. However, older models are still in circulation, leading to incidents like that of five-year-old Sophia Justice, who got her finger stuck in a vintage oven her mother purchased. Firefighters had to be called to free her hand from the device.

4. Coca-Cola

With Coca-Cola being distributed globally, it’s not unexpected that the company has faced several recalls, some of which have been quite bizarre. A recent incident involved Blake Loates from Edmonton, Canada, who was shocked to discover the phrase “You Retard” imprinted on the underside of a Vitamin Water bottle cap. This was especially distressing for Loates, as her half-sister suffers from cerebral palsy and autism.

Following an irate letter from Loates’s father, Coca-Cola quickly clarified that the phrase was part of a bilingual promotion, featuring an English word alongside its French counterpart. In French, retard simply translates to “late” and carries no derogatory meaning. The company assured the Loates family that the promotion would be discontinued and all remaining products would be recalled or destroyed.

This incident wasn’t Coca-Cola’s only public relations mishap. In 1995, the company had to discard thousands of posters intended for distribution in Australia. These posters, part of the “Feel The Curves!!” campaign to reintroduce a contoured bottle design, depicted a Coke bottle nestled in ice. Unbeknownst to many, the artist had hidden a provocative silhouette of a woman’s face and a penis within one of the ice cubes.

3. Mazda 6

Given the sheer number of components that make up a car, it’s no wonder the automotive industry often faces recalls. One of the most notorious cases was the Ford Pinto in the 1970s, which had a dangerous flaw causing it to burst into flames after rear-end collisions. However, one of the strangest recalls in recent history involved the Mazda 6 sedan.

In 2011 and 2014, Mazda issued two recalls affecting approximately 94,000 vehicles. The issue stemmed from a design flaw that allowed yellow sac spiders, drawn to the scent of gasoline, to enter the fuel tank. Once inside, the spiders could spin webs that might obstruct airflow, posing a fire risk. The first recall introduced a spring to deter the spiders, but when that failed, updated software was released to regulate fuel tank pressure. It remains a mystery why these spiders seem to prefer Mazdas over other cars.

2. The Flushmate

Clogged or inefficient toilets are such a common issue that they’ve become a recurring joke in films like Along Came Polly and Dumb and Dumber. The root of the problem lies in modern toilets being engineered to save water, which often results in weaker flushes. For those frustrated with constant plunging, solutions like Sloan Valve Company’s Flushmate III are designed to enhance flushing power.

Available from 1997 to 2008, this product had a critical design flaw that caused pressure to accumulate within the system, leading to exploding toilets. Reports included over 300 instances of property damage and more than a dozen injuries from shattered porcelain, prompting a recall in 2012 across the US and Canada.

1. Dive Sticks

Dive sticks seem like harmless pool toys at first glance. These weighted sticks sink to the bottom and stand upright, designed for various water games. However, they turned out to be dangerous—children diving into shallow pools risked being impaled by them. Severe injuries, including anal and vaginal penetrations requiring surgical intervention, were reported.

One tragic case involved the six-year-old daughter of Cherilyn Paulsen from Silver Spring, Maryland. During her birthday party, while playing in an inflatable pool, she fell onto a dive stick, resulting in a severe impalement. She was rushed to the hospital and underwent a two-hour surgery. Paulsen emphasized, “It shreds through children’s bodies. It may look harmless, but people need to understand the danger it poses.”

In June 1999, a significant recall was initiated, impacting more than 19 million dive sticks and involving numerous companies that distributed the product. By 2001, the Consumer Product Safety Commission enforced a ban under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, prohibiting the import, production, and sale of specific rigid plastic dive sticks.